Office 365 To Get Personal Edition

Microsoft is planning to release an Office 365 Personal edition for consumers this spring.

When launched, the Personal edition will provide rights to use a single copy of the latest Office suite, either on a PC or on a Mac, plus another copy on "a tablet to be connected to the service," according to Microsoft's announcement today. In addition, subscribers to the Personal edition will get access to 60 minutes of Skype calls per month plus 20 GB of additional OneDrive Storage. The storage is considered "additional" because OneDrive users already have 7 GB of free storage.

The estimated cost for the Personal edition will be $69.99 per year. Actual prices will get set by Microsoft's resellers.

Microsoft plans to continue its Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions, but that product will be renamed "Office 365 Home." Office 365 Home Premium currently offers the rights to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher and OneNote applications on a total of five devices, along with 20 GB of additional OneDrive storage, for $99.99 per year. It seems Microsoft is planning also to add 60 minutes of Skype calling per month to that plan.

Either plan allows the use of either Office 2013 for the PC or Office 2011 for Mac. It's rumored that the next Office for Mac release will occur at the end of this year.

Microsoft indicated it would provide more details about the new Personal edition closer to product launch.